Innovator of the Year Award

Note: All internal due dates are currently based on an estimated university due date. If the actual university due date is sooner than the estimated date, internal due dates may need to be updated. Any changes to due dates will be communicated as quickly as possible.

Important Dates:
6-28-23    Packages are due to department/unit heads – contact your department/unit head for what is required
7-26-23   Full packages are due to the Award Review Group – nominees to email them to Xiangwu Zhang
8-09-23   Award Review Group sends comments and suggestions about packages back to the nominees
8-23-23   Final packages are due to the dean’s office – nominees to email them to the dean’s EA
8-30-23   (Estimated) Packages are due to the university – Dean’s EA will submit

Wilson College of Textiles Nomination Limit: The associate dean for research may nominate up to two candidates. Each department head, center director or other interested parties may nominate one individual. 

Award Review Group (all by position): Emiel DenHartog, Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Abdel-Fattah Seyam, Xiangwu Zhang

Award Information
This award is presented annually to a faculty or staff inventor that has demonstrated excellence in innovation.

Criteria

• Patents Awarded
• Licenses Executed based on Innovator’s technology
• Industry Collaboration – number of companies engaged, research dollars attracted, resulting in patents or licenses, etc.
• Impact – The ultimate sign of successful innovation is a product on the market that is making an impact.  The impact can be measured in a number of ways:  enhanced products or services for consumers, products that improve quality of life, products that create new markets, etc.

Eligibility
Previous winners are not eligible.

Required Materials
Nominations will be sent electronically by Donna Bouffard to commercialization@ncsu.edu.  Nominations should include a letter of support no longer than 2 pages addressing the criteria described above.